Ricky is Ricky Martin. Lucy and any other fan of Ricky's should ignore Windman's b.s. ("Martin sings and moves well enough, but brings absolutely no personality or passion to Ché.").

I almost wrote about Evita and Ricky last month. That's why I'm a little confused right now. Why are they reviewing Evita this week?

Back in March (the 11th, 12 or 13th, I'd have to look it up and you know how lazy I am), I saw the musical.

ADDED 4-8-2012: What I saw was the musical in previews. It just officially opened this past week. C.I. explained that while we're working on the latest edition at Third.

I didn't plan on it. C.I. was on the phone the morning of. And as she and Wally return from their run, she's finishing a conversation on the phone and I'm battling with the coffee machine (which has no problems other than I am half-dead in the mornings). She says, to Wally, Ava and I, "I have to go to New York tonight. Anybody want to go?" Ava was a no and Wally as well. I figured what the hell, "Sure I'll go with."

I thought nothing else of it until I finished my coffee. Then I asked, "What are we doing?" I was thinking it was some charity function because last minute things usually end up being that. She'll think she can just write a check and skip the event but find out that they're concerned about turnout or something and end up having to go.

So she explained it was Evita. I knew she knew Ricky Martin. I did not know he was doing a play on Broadway. So she had been on the phone with a mutual friend who felt Ricky was thinking he was going to bomb and so they were going for moral support. She asked if I wanted to run wild in NYC or go to the play because she needed to say how many were coming. Sure, I'd love to go. We were a party of twelve.

Afterwards, we went backstage and C.I. told Ricky he was "brilliant." And that wasn't empty flattery, he really was brilliant.

He commands the stage. He has real authority in the role. And charisma and watched Evita with a kind of wicked disbelief.

I almost wrote about it but I hate Evita.

I always forget that fact until I see it.

I saw a touring company that came to San Francisco when the original was on Broadway. I only saw it because it was supposed to be political and had Che in it (Ricky plays Che in the revival). And I hated the musical. Then, a few years later, I forgot. And then I saw Madonna in that awful film and remembered how I hate the play. I'd forgotten again until they started performing.

It is not a political play.

Evita makes no policy. Juan Peron may have been a dictator (he's beloved by some in Argentina, hated by others who believe he was a dictator). Eva Peron may have been a silly idiot living large while others lived in poverty. Even if she was, her 'crime' was being married to a powerful man and enjoying that.

Juan Peron was the elected leader of Argentina (elected three times, I believe). A political play would be a play that took on his policies and gave us insight into whether he was a force of good or harmful to the people.

Do you get what I'm saying?

Eva may have been a twit or a "whore" as she's called repeatedly in song. But she wasn't the power. And she didn't make the policy. And you learn nothing from the play except she loved to spend money and was very vain.

Someone loving to spend money and being very vain might be entertaining but it's not generally political.

Evita is an attack on women. And sexism is political. But the sexism is Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's sexism.

They've created a deeply sexist work. It's offensive on every level.

And Che's really not all that 'radical.' (I'm referring to the way he's written. Not the way he's performed.) He's Broadway 'radical' -- which means he's a little to the left of Daisy Gimble.

So I hate the musical.

But I will repeat, Ricky Martin is amazing as Che. (And even more handsome offstage.) So if anyone's wondering like Lucy, Ricky's a success right now. Ignore that review.

Friday,
April 6, 2012. Chaos and violence continue, Home Depot gets sued by
the US Justice Dept over the firing of a National Guard member, KRG
President Massoud Barzani visits the US and discusses Article 140 (and
more), now Nouri doesn't want Tareq al-Hashemi to return to Iraq, Ammar
al-Hakim calls out Nouri's raid on the Communist Party last week, and
more.

Iraqi Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi is
currently on a diplomatic tour of the surrounding region having already
visited Qatar and currently Saudia Arabia. Raman Brosk (AKnews) reports
that State of Law is arguing that al-Hashemi should not be allowed to
re-enter Iraq and Iraqiya's spokesperson Maisoun al-Damlouji is
responding, "This is not acceptable at all. Hashemi is the vice
president of the Republic and he will return to the region." In
December, after most US troops left, Nouri al-Maliki upped the
political crisis by insisting that Deputy Prime Minister Saleh
al-Mutlaq be stripped of his post and that Vice President Tareq
al-Hashemi be arrested on charges of 'terrorism.' Both al-Mutlaq and
al-Hashemi are members of Iraqiya (both are also Sunni) which is the
political slate that won the most votes in the March 7, 2010
elections. Nouri's State of Law slate came in second to Iraqiya. The
two slates are political rivals. As an Iraqi correspondent for McClatchy Newspapers observed at Inside Iraq this week:

In
a press conference Maliki said that he had a criminal file on Hashimi
that he had been sitting on for three years, and was now ready to
prosecute him. For the objective observer, the timing of this
announcement was telling. [. . .] Confessions of Hashimi's security
personnel were aired on state television and an arrest warrent for
Hashim himself was issued and also made public on state TV -- All this
publicity on Maliki's side in order to burn the bridges and make any
political deal impossible in this country where government is glued
together with political deals.

A
day after al-Hashemi went to the KRG, Nouri issued the arrest warrant.
Tareq al-Hashemi has remained in the KRG as a guest of Iraqi President
Jalal Talabani and KRG President Massoud Barzani. Sunday he left for a
diplomatic tour of some of the neighboring Iraq countries. He has
visited Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

While
Iraq hoped the high-profile Arab League summit in Baghdad last week
would mark a step forward in relations with its neighbours, observers
say many regional states used the event to snub the government.Although
officials declared the event a success, only ten leaders from the 22
Arab League member states turned up. Apart from Kuwait, no Gulf state
was represented at a high level. Saudi Arabia and Oman merely sent
their Cairo-based Arab League ambassadors.

As demonstrated by actions this week (see Liz Sly's Washington Post report
from yesterday) the Arab League Summit changed nothing of importance
for Iraq. This despite all the money spent on it. And several
countries were able to use the summit to send a message. That message
was received loud and clear by Nouri who responded by attacking Qatar
and Saudi Arabia over the weekend -- before al-Hashemi arrived there.
And the attacks continue. Today Alsumaria reports
that Nouri's State of Law again elevated the rhetoric against Saudi
Arabia and Qatar today as Abbas al-Bayati declared that the press for
both countries was carrying out their governments' attack on Iraq's
government.

AFP reports
that a spokesperson for Tareq al-Hashemi declared today -- as
al-Hashemi has all week -- that he will return to Iraq after he's
concluded his diplomatic mission and "that for Hasemi to remain abroad
was 'the wish of his enemies,' in a clear reference to Maliki." There
is something very comical about Nouri's attitude as the week ends.

It
started with him and his spokespeople blustering and bellowing about
how Qatar would hand al-Hashemi over to Baghdad (they didn't) and how
INTERPOL would show up if needed to remove al-Hashemi from Qatar and
bring him to Baghdad. That was never going to happen as we explained on
Sunday and Monday
-- it is written into INTERPOL's charter that it does not take part in
political arrests and that is so that INTERPOL will be seen as
impartial. So he demanded Qatar hand the vice president over and then
demanded the same of Saudi Arabia, insisted INTERPOL would return him
and now Nouri's position is that Tareq al-Hashemi should not be allowed
to re-enter the country?

In addition to the
laughs prompted by Nouri's flip-flops, grasp that Nouri's court is
supposed to try al-Hashemi May 3rd. And Nouri's position is that
al-Hashemi can't come back into Iraq?

In Iraq, the political crisis continues and intensifies.

The
March 7, 2010 elections were followed by over 8 months of gridlock
known as Political Stalemate I. Nouri al-Maliki did not want to abide
by the Constitution or the will of the Iraqi people expressed at the
ballot box. He did not want to stop being prime minister. In 2014 (or
2015 the way Nouri drags his feet), this may be an issue again because
although when Iraqis took to the streets in large number protesting
against corruption in his government and more (February 25, 2011), he
swore he would not run for a third term, his spokespeople and attorney
have repeatedly told the press that Nouri is not bound by that and may
decide to run again.

With the White House
backing him for a second term, Nouri knew he didn't have to compromise
and could just stomp his feet in the hopes of getting his way.

In
an attempt to soothe the stubborn child, the political blocs agreed to
end the stalemate by signing off on the US-brokered Erbil Agreement.
That was November 2010. By the end of December 2010, it was obvious
that the only thing Nouri really intended to honor from that agreement
was that he would get a second term as prime minister. For months, the
other political blocs waited and waited for the agreement to be
implemented. It never way. Over the summer last year, the Kurds made
it clear that the country needed to return to the Erbil Agreement.
Iraqiya quickly joined that call, then Moqtada al-Sadr and then
others.

Many
Iraqis -- Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds alike -- fear that the U.S.
withdrawal has given Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki, a conservative
Shiite Islamist, free rein to consolidate power and turn himself into
an intractable strongman.Those worries were only compounded when
the White House last month named Brett McGurk the new U.S. ambassador
to Baghdad. As adviser to the past three envoys, McGurk had garnered a
reputation among Iraqi political elites as a die-hard Maliki booster
who turns a blind eye to the prime minister's emerging dictatorial
streak."They basically sent someone from Maliki's office," one
Sunni politician grumbled privately about the Obama administration's
choice.

In
December of last year, when Nouri went publicly nuts (deploying tanks
to circle the homes of political rivals, for example), Speaker of
Parliament Osama al-Nujaifi and Iraqi President Jalal Talabani began
calling (December 21st) for a national conference to address the
crisis. That was supposed to have taken place yesterday; however, it
was called off at the last minute. Al Mada notes
that Iraqi President Jalal Talabani is calling for a new date to be set
for a national conference to resolve the ongoing crisis in Iraq and
that State of Law, as evidenced by the statemetns of Hussein Shahristani, is pleased that the conference was cancelled.

In what Nouri hopes is an isolated move, Al Mada reports
State of Law MP Jawad Albzona has withdrawn from Nouri's coalition and
stated that he would prefer to be independent which, he believes, will
allow him to better represent Iraqis by distancing himself from
political squabbles and moving towards the needs of the citizens of
Iraq. He is the second State of Law MP to announce a departure since
2010. Since December, he has repeatedly made public statements decrying
the current political crisis and asking for the politicians to work on
issues directly effecting the lives of Iraqis. An issue effecting
Iraq's internally displaced refugees is living among piles of garbage Al Rafidayn reports.
Currently the United Nations estimates there are 1.3 million displaced
Iraqis within Iraq. On Albzona's departure from State of Law, Al Rafidayn notes the MP declared he will remain a member of the National Alliance (a larger coalition of Shi'ite political blocs).

Meanwhile
the leader of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (also a member of the
National Alliance), Ammar al-Haskim, has weighed in on two key issues. Al Mada reports
he declared the poverty program of the last two years a failure, noting
that it has not reduced the rate of poverty in Iraq. He is calling not
only for a new program and strategy but for the budget to reflect a
strong goal to reduce poverty. In regard to the raid Nouri ordered last
week on the Communist Party's newspaper headquarters, al-Hakim stated
that when security forces violate the rights of the people negative
images are reinforced and that the role of the security forces is to
protect freedoms (not attack them). He decried the arrest of 12 people
in the raid on the Communist Party. Last week, Iraqiya leader Ayad
Allawi condemned the raid. From the March 28th snapshot:

We'll
close by noting the disturbing news of the day and news that wasn't
picked up and front paged but should have been. Nouri al-Maliki is now
going after Iraq's Communist Party. Al Mada reports
that Nouri's security forces stormed the political party's headquarters
and arrested 12 people who were arrested and questioned about protests.
Ali Hussein (Al Mada) notes
the Communist Party has a long history of fighting for Iraq, not
against it. Hussein reports that Nouri's tanks have been sent to
surround the homes of Communist Party members in Baghdad. Those who
paid attention in December will remember that Nouri ordered tanks to
circle the homes of Iraqiya members right before he demanded that
Deputy Prime Minister Saleh al-Mutlaq be stripped of his posts and
ordered the arrest of Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi on charges of
terrorism. Both al-Mutlaq and al-Hashemi are members of Iraqiya as well
as Sunnis. Ali Hussein notes that Nouri also ordered tanks to circle
the homes of Communist Party members last year.

The Iraq Communist Party Tweeted
last week, "Iraqi Communist Party condemns raid of its newspaper
headquarters by security forces." They state that the raid took place
late in the evening Monday and that their headquarters were ransacked
by federal police who entered claiming that they were doing a sweep of
the area for the Arab League Summit. An old weapon ("piece of junk")
was on the roof and they used this as a pretext to arrest 12 of the
people who were held overnight and only released after they signed
documents -- documents they were forced to sign while blindfolded.
While they were held, the federal police returned to the now empty
headquarters and ransacked the place.

Add a
third political leader to the list. In DC yesterday, Kurdistan
Regional Government President Massoud Barzani was asked if Nouri's
authoritarian ways were reason to be concerned as he consolidated
complete control of the security forces and Barzani responded, "The
new Iraqi army needs to be built on the basis of being the army of the
country, not an army of an individual. So to be an army that belongs to
the people of Iraq and the state of Iraq in accordance with the
Constitution and the laws. And also the Iraqi army should not
interfere in the internal political differences of the country. "

ABC News notes,
"Barzani, who was in Washington to meet with President Obama and Vice
President Joe Biden, said that unless Baghdad resolves simmering
disputes involving its ethnic and political factions, the situation
would be ripe for an autocratic government." Hurriyet Daily News adds,
"The Obama administration has pressed Kurdish Regional Government (KRG)
leader Masoud Barzani to re-engage with Baghdad amid high tension over
the status of fugitive Iraqi Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi.
Al-Hashemi arrived in Saudi Arabia on April 4 and accused his country's
prime minister of waging a systematic campaign against Sunni Arabs in
Iraq." Today's Zaman reports:

"Barzani
visited the US to complain about Maliki," said one diplomat on Friday,
speaking on condition of anonymity. Barzani met with President Barack
Obama and with Vice President Joe Biden separately on Wednesday, and
told them that Maliki is consolidating power in a dictatorial way. He
said Obama and Biden reassured him that the United States would remain
committed to cooperation with Kurdistan and committed to helping Iraq
solve its serious internal political problems.

[. . .]

Bilgay
Duman, an expert on Iraq from the Ankara-based Center for Middle
Eastern Strategic Research (ORSAM), stated that Barzani's reception by
high-ranking US officials should be perceived as a warning to Maliki to
abandon his sectarian-based policies in the country. Iraq is suffering
from severe instabilities due to daily clashes between Shiite and Sunni
groups, which escalated after US troops withdrew from the country in
December. The KRG is striving to maintain balanced ties with Iraq's
rival Sunni and Shiite groups as they vie for influence in the country
following the US withdrawal. Turkey is very critical of Maliki, saying
the Shiite prime minister is using the arrest warrant against Hashemi
to sideline Sunni political groups in the administration and hoard
power for dominance of the Shiite bloc.

"The
stance of Arbil and Ankara against Baghdad are very much in line, due
to the fact that both are disturbed by Maliki's dictatorial
government," affirmed Ali Semin, a Middle East expert from the Turkish
think-tank -- the Wise Men Center for Strategic Studies (BİLGESAM). He
added that the US is now trying to forge ties between KRG and Turkey in
order to secure the unity of Iraq.

So that we're all on the same page, the 2005 Iraqi Constitution includes Article 140:

First:
The executive authority shall undertake the necessary steps to complete
the implementation of the requirements of all subparagraphs of Article
58 of the Transitional Administrative Law.

Second:
The responsibility placed upon the executive branch of Iraqi
Transitional Government stipulated in Article 58 of the Transitional
Administrative Law shall extend and continue to the executive authority
elected in accordance with this Constitution, provided that it
accomplishes completely (normalization and census and concludes with a
referendum in Kirkuk and other disputed territories to determine the
will of their citizens), by a date not to exceed the 31st of December
2007.

The census and referendum are to
take place no later than December 31, 2007. Nouri al-Maliki becomes
prime minister in 2006. He took an oath to the Iraqi Constitution. He
never ordered the census or the referendum before the end of 2007. His
first term ended with him unable/unwilling to abide by the Constitution
he took an oath to uphold. There has been no census or referendum. He
is and remains in violation of the Constitution.

With
that understanding, we'll now note what KRG President Massoud Barzani
declared yesterday in DC at the forum put on by the Washington
Institute for Near East Policy on the issue of Kirkuk and Article 140.

President
Massoud Barzani: Article 140 is a Constitutional Article and it needed
a lot of discussions and talks until we have reached this. This is the
best way to solve this problem. It's regarding solving the problems of
the territories that have been detached from Kurdistan Region. In
fact, I do not want to call it "disputed areas" because we do not have
any disputes on that. For us it is very clear for that. But we have
shown upmost flexibility in order to find the legal and the
Constitutional solution for this problem. And in order to pave the way
for the return of these areas, according to the Constitution and the
basis of law and legally to the Kurdistan Region. And we have found
out that there is an effort to evade and run away from this
responsibility for the last six years in implementing this
Constitutional Article. And I want to assure you that implementing
this Constitutional Article is in the interest of Iraq and in the
interest of stability. There are people who think that time would make
us forget about this. They are wrong. Time would not help forget or
solve the problem. These are Kurdish countries, part of Kurdistan and
it has to return to Kurdistan based on the mechanism that has been
stipulated in the Constitution. And at the end of the day, as the
Constitution stipulates, it's going back to what the people want to
determine. So there is a referendum for the people of these areas and
they will decide. If the people decide to joing Kurdistan Region,
they're welcome and if the people decide not to, at that time, we will
look at any responsibility on our shoulders so people would be held
responsible for their own decisions.

Barzani
is not calling for any additional steps to resolving the issue of
Kirkuk, he is only asking that what was already agreed to and written
into the Constitution be followed. In addition to taking questions,
Barzani delivered a speech at the forum and you can see yesterday's snapshot for that.

President
Massoud Barzani: As far as the second part of your question, the Erbil
Agreement. In fact, the agreement was not only for the sake of forming
the government and forming the three presidencies -- the presidency,
the Speakership of Parliament and premier. In fact, it was a package
-- a package that included a number of essential items. First, to put
in place a general partnership in the country. Second, commitment to
the Constitution and its implementation, the issue of fedarlism, the
return of balance of power and especially in all the state
institutions,the establishment in [. . .] mainly in the armed forces
and the security forces, the hydrocarbons law, the Article 140 of the
Constitution, the status of the pesh merga. These were all part of the
package that had been there. Had this Erbil Agreement been
implemented, we would not have faced the situation that we are in
today. Therefore, if we do not implement the Erbil Agreement then
there would certainly be problems in Iraq.

Again,
the political crisis did not start over the accusations Nouri hurled at
Saleq al-Mutlaq and Tareq al-Hashemi. The failure to follow the Erbil
Agreement -- the document ending Political Stalemate I -- is what
caused the current crisis -- a crisis that has now lasted over a year
and four months.

Turning to the United States, yesterday Caitlin Duffy (Forbes) reported
of Home Depot, "The home improvement retailer's shares are once again
hitting fresh multi-year highs, with the stock up 1.4% on the day at
$50.56 as of 12:35 p.m. in New York trade. Call activity on Home Depot
suggests at least one strategist is gearing up for the bullish momentum
to continue in the near term." But how long will the outlook remain
bullish as word leaks out about a new lawsuit? The US Justice Dept
issued the following yesterday:

WASHINGTON
-- The Justice Department announced today the filing of a complaint in
U.S. District Court in Arizona against Home Depot U.S.A. Inc. for
violating the employment rights of California Army National Guard
soldier Brian Bailey under the Uniformed Services Employment and
Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 (USERRA).

The
department's complaint alleges that Home Depot willfully violated
USERRA by terminating Bailey's employment because of his military
service obligations. Bailey, an Iraq War veteran, worked at a Home
Depot store in Flagstaff, Ariz., as a department supervisor while at
the same time serving in the California Army National Guard. Throughout
his employment with Home Depot, Bailey took periodic leave from work to
fulfill his military obligations with the National Guard. According to
the Justice Department's complaint, Bailey was removed from his
position as a department supervisor after Home Depot management
officials at the Flagstaff store openly expressed their displeasure
with his periodic absences from work due to his military obligations
and further indicated their desire to remove him from his position
because of those absences.

Bailey
initially filed a complaint with the Labor Department's Veterans'
Employment and Training Service, which investigated the matter,
determined that the complaint had merit and referred the matter to the
Justice Department. The Justice Department's Civil Rights Division
subsequently decided to represent Bailey in this matter and filed this
lawsuit on his behalf.

USERRA
prohibits employers from discriminating against National Guard
soldiers, such as Bailey, with respect to employment opportunities
based on their past, current or future uniformed service obligations.
Under USERRA, it is unlawful for an employer to terminate an employee
because he has to miss work due to military obligations.

Among
other things, the suit seeks compensation for Bailey's lost wages and
benefits, liquidated damages and reinstatement of Bailey's employment
with Home Depot.

"The
men and women who wear our nation's uniform need to know that they do
not have to sacrifice their job at home in order to serve our country,"
said Thomas E. Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights
Division. "The Civil Rights Division is committed to aggressive
enforcement of USERRA to protect the rights of those who, through their
bravery and sacrifice, secure the rights of all Americans."

"The
National Guard is composed primarily of civilian men and women who
serve their country, state and community on a part-time basis," said
Acting U.S. Attorney Ann Birmingham Scheel. "National Guard members,
and their employers, should know that we will employ all of USERRA's
tools to protect the employment rights of those in uniform while they
sacrifice time away from their families and jobs for training and
active duty."

This
case is being handled by the Employment Litigation Section of the
Justice Department's Civil Rights Division and the U.S. Attorney's
Office for the District of Arizona.

Staying with the issue of the US military, on Saturday, David Brown (Washington Post) reported
on studies -- apparent Pentagon studies -- that researched the
signature wounds of the modern wars and demonstrated a weak link
between TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury) and PTSD (Post-Trumatic Stress
Disorder) and "outright violent behavior." As we have noted for years
here, those suffering from PTSD are far more likely to self-harm than
to harm others. That was true not only in the early research on PTSD
during these wars but true as well when you go back to studies on
similar conditions such as what was once known as "shell shocked." In
all of that, self-harm could and sometimes did include self-medicating
with alcohol or other drugs. What's distrubing about the Post report
is "outright violent behavior." Some might agree (some might not) with
the conclusion that a drunken brawl with a friend isn't "outright
violent behavior." I would hope at this late date, in the US, no one
would conclude -- as the Pentagon apparently has -- that domestic abuse
is not "outright violent behavior." Domestic abuse is a crime. it is
a serious crime. The military can do whatever they want with drunken
brawls among friends, I don't really care (some people may), but when
you classify domestic abuse as something other than "outright violent
behavior," we do have a problem -- a very serious problem. Domestic
violence is a crime, it is violence and I think a strong argument can
be made that it's a form of terrorism. As Maureen Orth detailed in Vanity Fair nearly nine years ago, there are life and death consequences.
The US military has a long history of looking the other way when a
woman is assaulted or raped. Supposedly that's changed. We heard it
over and over, for example, from then-Secretary of Defense Robert Gates
when he would appear before the Congress. But if the climate actually
had changed, beating a woman would not be classified as something less
than "outright violent behavior."

While it is estimated that over 19,000 sexual assaults occurred in the military in 2010, a rate far higher than among civilians, the government has failed systematically
to investigate complaints, appropriately punish perpetrators, and treat
trauma and other health conditions suffered by survivors. The profound
personal and social consequences that arise from the government's
systemic failures are powerfully profiled in the new film, The Invisible War.
Turning a blind eye to these crimes has allowed them to continue,
imperiling the lives of victims and degrading their service.

On
Friday, a federal district court judge cited yet another example of the
military's unwillingness to acknowledge sexual violence within its
ranks. In response to Freedom of Information Act requests filed by the Service Women's Action Network (SWAN) and the ACLU
seeking records from the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs
regarding their response to sexual assault, sexual harassment, and
domestic violence in the military, the Army Crime Records Center
claimed it couldn't provide records about "sexual assault" because its
records are organized by specific criminal offenses such as "rape," not
under the general heading of "sexual assault."

"'Sexual
assault' is easily read as encompassing rape and other non-consensual
sexual crimes defined in the Army's offense codes," the judge found.
"The fact that the agency was unwilling to read the Plaintiffs' request
liberally to include such terms seems to be almost willful blindness."

The
judge further ruled that several other sections of the Departments
failed to adequately respond to our requests and ordered the government
to fulfill its obligations under FOIA. We will continue to press the
government for the information we need to truly understand, address, and end the epidemic of sexual violence in the military.

Thursday, April 05, 2012

It's probably my favorite book of fiction published in the last ten years.

I don't know how many people read it. There were attacks on Atwood for speaking in Israel not all that long ago.

But this was a book of fiction that, in some ways, was a sequel to Atwood's The Handmaiden's Tale and, in some ways, was a science primer. I'm sure those with a science background would enjoy the book even more than I do.

But it's in the near future and we live in gated communities (if we're lucky) and we've destroyed the environment but seem too in love with our gadgets and the various forms of elective surgery we can now have that we really don't care. Those not in gated communities care -- especially those who are part of the resistance. And we've not just screwed the environment, we've f**ked over Mother Nature. We're creating all these new animal hybrids.

I read it when it came out meaning I read it when Bully Boy Bush was occupying the White House and the scary nature of the book was something I attempted to pin off on him but grasped might go beyond him. And it has. Everything that was frightening under Bush remains frightening today under his twin Barack.

In the book, you've got hybrids like pigs and balloons, and skunks and racoons, and you've got an intentional pandemic.

Thursday,
April 5, 2012. Chaos and violence continue, the national conference
does not take place, KRG President Massoud Barzani makes clear that the
Kurds will not be put off any more, al-Hashemi continues his diplomatic
tour, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon calls for Iraq to halt
executions, and more.

Oil, if
Iraq didn't have it, the illegal war might never have started in 2003.
Oil continues to be a source of violence and conflict within Iraq. For
example, an apparent bombing has stopped a pipeline. Ali Berat Meric and Emre Peker (Bloomberg News) report
that the Kirkuk-Yumurtalik pipeline is not transporting oil to Turkey
currently after a bombing took place within Turkey damaging the
pipeline. Orhan Coskun (Reuters) reports, "There
were three almost simultaneous explosions at separate points along the
pipeline in the Idil area, a Turkish security official said."

There's
violence and the conflict? At this point, that's primarily between the
central-government in Baghdad and the Kurdistan Regional Government.
Nouri took the ongoing disagreement to a new level this week when his
government accused the Kurds of selling blackmarket oil to the
government of Iran. Alsumaria TV reported
the Kurdistan Alliance denied the charges and accused Deputy
Prime Minister of Energy Hussein al-Shahristani of declaring war on
them and they are calling for him to apologize to the Kurdish people
for his accusations. As RT noted,
the Kurds were already unhappy with Baghdad over a $1.5 billion debt
that they say the centeral-government owes them and that the refusal to
pay led the KRG to halt their Baghdad oil deliveries at the start of
the week after ten consecutive months of no payment from Baghdad. Alsumaria quotes
KRG Natrual Resources Minister Ashti Hawrami telling the press,
"Kurdistan Government will not resume oil export before it reaches a
comprehensive agreement with Baghdad about payment methods and dues to
oil companies in the Region. Kurdistan Government will only resume oil
export when it reaches a general agreement with Baghdad." The editorial board of The National offered:

This
is, above all else, a political disagreement. And it's a disagreement
that is harming both sides. Kurdish leaders are asserting their
autonomy that, in terms of state institutions and security forces, is
already a fact on the ground. A charitable view is that Mr Al Maliki is
trying to unify a national energy sector; an alternative explanation is
that Baghdad is trying to monopolise national resources for the
exclusive benefit of his constituency.

The
casualty in this case is the national economic project. After more than
three years of haggling, Iraq's oil law seems no closer to being
passed, which in turn harms foreign investment in the sector. Baghdad
objects to the deals the KRG has struck independently with oil majors;
on Monday, Exxon Mobil confirmed that it had frozen an exploration
contract in the Kurdish region because of pressure from Baghdad.

ExxonMobil may or may not have confirmed that. Reuters notes today,
"The central government now says that Exxon has written to it twice
since early March to say that its deals with the Kurds have been
suspended. The Kurds say Exxon has not halted work in Kurdistan and
have challenged Baghdad to publish Exxon's letters." And the battle
over ExxonMobil is being watched as the Reuters points out:

Oil
majors are now waiting on the sidelines, watching the outcome of
Exxon's balancing act between Baghdad and Arbil, the northern capital.
France's Total is the latest company to provoke Baghdad's ire by
acknowledging interest in Kurdistan. "What companies are trying to do
is get to the point where they are investing in the north and the
south," said one industry source working in Iraq. "But at the moment
they cannot do that. And that is what you have to build in when you
decide whether to move in or not. You balance the risks."

So the status of the ExxonMobil deal with the KRG is not known at this point. What is known?

Relations
between Erbil and Baghdad were strained even before the controversy
over the Exxon Mobil deal flared anew. Kurdish President Massoud
Barzani delivered a stinging speech on Thursday in Washington that
ripped into Maliki as an autocrat.

"Iraq is facing a serious crisis," he said. He insisted that oil deals struck in the autonomous Kurdish region were legal.

KRG
President Massoud Barzani spoke in DC this afternoon at a Washington
Institute for Near East Policy event. His speech was delivered in
Kurdish and translated.

KRG President
Massoud Barzani: My visit to Washington came at the invitation of the
US government in order to talk about the situation in Iraq, in the
wider region, and also the situation between Kurdistan region and Iraq
in detail. Yesterday, during our meetings with the President, the Vice
President and other officials of the US administration, we have talked
about all of these issues in detail. I'm sure many of you know that
the people of Kurdistan have sacrificed a great deal and have shed a
lot of blood for the sake of building a federal, democratic and
pluralistic Iraq. But you always are mindful of the fact that, had it
not been for the US support and assistance, without the sacrifices of
men and women in uniform, the sacrifices that have been made, this
objective would not have been achieved and the regime would not have
been toppled. So we got a golden opportunity to build a new Iraq, an
Iraq that's federa, democratic, l pluralistic, an Iraq that's new and
better. And also to be clear that what's the composition of this new
Iraq? It's three main pillars that constitute Iraq. It's the Kurds,
the Shias and the Sunnis. Having said that, we have to be mindful of
the fact that we have other national minorities living with us, that
they have to be respected, they have to be equally treated. We've got
the Turkomen, the Chaldean Assyrian, the Syriac and also an Albanian
minority. But we also have to realize that in terms of nationalities,
Iraq is made up of two main nationalities: Arabs and Kurds. I can say
that in Kurdistan we have an experience that to a great extent has been
a successful one. I cannot claim that this is an ideal experience
without any flaws or shortcomings. But I can say for sure that the
security stability situation is very good. The economy and social
activies are good. Socially we have made a lot of progress. We in the
region have adopted a tolerant policy. We have not resorted to
revenge and retaliation. We have opened a new page and therefore we
have been able to provide a safe and secure environment and to protect
our people. And for that, we are grateful to the support and
assistance that we have received from own own people but also thanks to
the dedication of the security and law enforcement people. And the
safe and secure environment has been the reason for inviting and
attracting foreign companies and here lately American oil companies
have also started to come to the region and start their investment and
other activities. I will give you some brief examples to show you the
difference that we have made and theprogress that we have made. After
the fall of the regime in 2003, the GDP [Gross Domestic Product] per
capita for individuals in the Kurdistan region was $275 per annum and
now it exceeds $5,000. And also the electricity rate was 57%. It has
reduced or dropped to 16%. Regarding other services and mainly
electricity, we've been able to improve that sector. I can say that
we're almost able to provide electritiy to all the main cities and
townships and rural areas. In certain areas, we have got four hours of
electricity. What has come to the Iraqi Treasury from 2003 until now,
it has exceeded half-of-a-trillion [dollars]. You can check that
information to see what kind of electricity has been provided in other
parts of Iraq which does not exceed three to four hours. There are one
million people under arms [security forces] but still terrorism and the
threat of terrorism continues. Iraq is facing a serious crisis today.
Yesterday, we have discussed that very frankly with the President, the
Vice President and it's going to one-man rule. It's going towards
control of all the establishments of state. So we have got a situation
or we ended up having a situation in Baghdad where one individual is
the Prime Minister and at the same time he's the commander-in-chief of
the armed forces, he's the Minister of Defense, he's the Minister of
the Interior and the Chief of the Intelligence and lately he has sent a
correspondence to the president of the Central Bank in Iraq that that
establishment would also come under the Prime Minister. Where in the
world would you find such an example? We as the people of Kurdistan,
we believe that this government has come to be as a result of the blood
that we have shed and as a result of the sacrifices that we have
contributed. We are eager to see the situation reformed. Therefore,
we will not leave Baghdad for others. So, therefore, we see the
situation in Iraq that it requires to be ruled in partnership -- for
that power-sharing and partnership to consist of the Kurds and the
Arabs -- both the Shia Arabs and the Sunni Arabs. Of course, we have to
be mindful of the fact that the Iraqis themselves have to find
solutions for the problems. When they try to find solutions for
themselves, then their friends in the international community can
help. But if they wait for others, for the outsiders to help solve
their problems, they will wait forever and they will not see
solutions. They have to do it themselves. It's very natural to have
relations with the neighboring countries and also with the
international community. But also specifically with the neighboring
countries in order to exchange views and to exchange ideas about this
but not to give them an opportunity to interfere int he internal
affairs of Iraq or for them to come to solve the problems or for them
to act on behalf of the Iraqi people. The Iraqis have to do it
themselves. But my visit has nothing to do with the other visit it was
separate.

The speech was
a declaration of the need for the Kurdish leaders to do what is best
for the Kurdish people. This was a message to Baghdad and Nouri, of
course, but it was also a message to the White House and making clear
that pretty words and empty promises will not be accepted by the
Kurdish politicians any longer because the Kurdish people deserve more
than that.

This was clear in the question
and answers that followed. For example, in reply to questions from
Barbara Slavin about the oil issue and whether the KRG might move from
semi-autonomous to autonomous (breaking completely with Baghdad),
Barzani replied through his translator:

We
have been waiting for the last six years for promises that were not
delivered, for agreements that were not honored. We have waited and
everytime they give us an excuse. Once they say that there are
elections in Baghdad, another time, elections in the region. Once
there is election in the United States. Then there is the Arab Summit,
etc., etc. We have found out that we have passed six years waiting for
these promises to be delivered. We cannot anymore wait for unfulfilled
promises and undelivered promises. There has to be a specific and
determined timeline for this to be delivered. We got tired of this and
we are fed up with that. Therefore, what we will do is that we will
work on the preferred option to work with the other Iraqi groups to
find a solution. If not, then we go back to our people and to put all
of these realities inf ront of our people for the people to be free to
make their own decision. As far as the issue of the oil is concerned,
in 2007, when we were working and we reached an agreement on a draft
oil hydrocarbons law, we both agreed that if that law did not pass in
the Parliament until May that same year that both sides -- the KRG and
the federal government -- are free to continuing signing contracts with
international oil companies. Therefore, whatever we have done in the
region, we have not violated the Constitution. We have acted legally
and Constitutionally within the framework of the Constitution.

Did
you pay attention to all the excuses that have been given to the Kurds
to wait? Including a US election? This speech was a declaration of
independence on the part of the Kurds. The basic premise Massoud
Barzani has outlined is: We will not be bound by empty words no matter
who speaks them.

Many of the remarks were also
directed at Nouri al-Maliki. Today was the day Nouri was supposed to
demonstrate what a leader he was. The political crisis would finally be
addressed via a national conference with the various political blocs
participating. News of the conference's death emerged yesterday.

The
political crisis (Political Stalemate II) has been ongoing since at
least December 2010. Political Stalemate I (eight months of inaction
following the March 7, 2010 elections) ended only when all parties
agreed to the US-brokered Erbil Agreement. This agreement found all
blocs making concessions. Nouri wanted to remain prime minister, so he
agreed to practically any demand/request on any other issue. Having
been made prime minister-designate, he immediately began saying that
the Erbil Agreement would have to wait on certain things -- for
example, he said, it would take time to create the independent national
security commission to be headed by Iraqiya's Ayad Allawi (Iraqiya won
the most votes in the election). These things would be a matter of
days. But as the weeks progressed, he made clear the promise to resolve
the issue of Kirkuk wasn't going to be dealt with by calling off the
planned census at the start of the December. As December was winding
down, he was moved from prime minister-designate to prime minister and
it was clear to many that the Erbil Agreement was being tossed.

Nouri
went a few months claiming it would be implemented, give it time.
Stalling is Nouri's tactic, after all. Then his lackeys -- in Iraq and
the US -- began putting forward the argument that Nouri didn't have to
abide by the Erbil Agreement it was illegal (many US lackeys were too
ignorant of the law and used the term "unconstitutional" -- there is
nothing in Iraq's Constitution that outlaws the Erbil Agreement or
anything similar to it, the ignorant most likely would have used the
term "extra-Constitutional" if they had any education in the law). The
problem with the ignorant making legal arguments is that although they
are highly amusing they fail to grasp that law is carried through.
Meaning if I argue the Erbil Agreement is illegal, I'm not just giving
Nouri permission to ignore it, I'm arguing that Nouri's second term as
prime minister is illegal because that resulted from the Erbil
Agreement. Logic is not a skill that the lackeys possess.

By
last summer, the Kurds were tired of waiting for Nouri to implement the
Erbil Agreement and began demanding that he do so. Iraqiya, Moqtada
al-Sadr and others joined that call.

The national conference was
supposed to address the Erbil Agreement. Speaker of Parliament Osama
al-Nujaifi and President Jalal Talabani both began calling for a
national conference on December 21st. Nouri was the stumbling block.

He
said one wasn't needed. He also argued that it shouldn't be a called a
national conference. Then he argued that all political blocs shouldn't
be invited, just some. He tried to argue in February that any such
conference should be confined solely to the three presidencies
(Talabani, Nujaifi and Nouri). He argued about what should be on the
agenda and what shouldn't. He argued so much that the conference that
many once thought would take place in January kept getting kicked back
and kicked back. As March loomed, Nouri began insisting that the Arab
League Summit (March 29th) would have to be the focus and that any
national conference would have to wait until after that.

All
that stalling. Stalling was brought in Barzani's speech
today. Tomorrow, we'll try to cover more of the questions and answers
that followed his speech (Article 140 if nothing else). But we'll move
over to another political problem. Salah Nasrawi (Al Ahram) reports
that Iraqiya continues to be opposed to US President Barack Obama's
nominee for US Ambassador to Iraq. They see him as too close to Nouri
making him "biased" and they also see him as "unfit" and hostile to
Iraqiya as well:

Iraqi media outlets
reported that in his letter to Congress Allawi accused McGurk of
"meddling in Iraq's internal affairs," including in efforts to weaken
the bloc's negotiating position with Al-Maliki.

The
letter detailed how McGurk had managed to convince about a dozen mostly
Shia members to quit the Iraqiya bloc, a move that led to criticisms
that it was a purely Sunni group and denied it the character of a
secular alliance.

Nouri
was mentioned today by more than Barzani. Iraqi Vice President Tareq
al-Hashemi is currently on a diplomatic tour of countries in the
region. Since late December, Nouri has been attempting to arrest him
for 'terrorism.' al-Hashemi has stayed in the KRG as a guest of
Talabani and Barzani. He has visited Qatar and Saudi Arabia thus far
and has repeatedly stated that he intends to return to the KRG as soon
as his diplomatic tour is over. Middle East Online reports today:

In
an interview with the pan-Arab Al-Jazeera network aired late on
Wednesday, Hashemi said the accusations against him of running a death
squad "have a sectarian dimension," noting that he is the "fifth Sunni
figure to be targeted" by Iraq's Shiite-led government.

"More
than 90 percent of the detainees in Iraq are Sunnis," said Hashemi, who
pledged to return to Iraq to carry out his vice presidential duties
despite Maliki's demands for him to face trial.

Hashemi
sharply criticised Maliki, saying that "corruption in the country is
widespread" and warning that the prime minister's policies were
threatening "the unity of Iraq."

Alsumaria notes that Jalal Talabani is calling for a new date to be set for the national conference.

Fresh
off it's being ranked number three for most executions in one year [see
Amnesty International report entitled [PDF format warning] "Death Sentences And Executions 2011."], the government of Iraq gears up to kill more people. Al Rafidayn reports a Babylon court has sentenced two former military officers to death for murder and theft. Louis Charbonneua (Reuters) reported
yesterday evening that United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon was
expressing concern over the death penalty worldwide and specifically in
Iraq which, according to the report, executed 80 people from December
2011 to February 2012 versus 68 from January 2011 through November
2011. (In eleven months, they put 68 to death; in December, January and
February, they managed to put 80 to death.) He called for Iraqi to put
in place "a moratorium on the use of the death penalty." In Amnesty
International's "Death Sentences And Executions 2011," they explained:

The
government of Iraq rarely discloses information about executions,
especially names of those executed and exact numbers. According to
Amnesty International information, at least 68 people were executed in
Iraq, including two foreigners and three women. Hundreds of people were
sentenced to death; 735 death sentences were referred to the Iraqi
Presidency for final ratification between January 2009 and September
2011, of which 81 have been ratified. Most death sentences were
imposed, and executions carried out, on people convicted of belonging
to or involvement in attacks by armed groups, including murder,
kidnapping, rape or other violent crimes.

On
16 November, 11 people, including one woman, convicted of
terrorism-related offences, were reported to have been executed in
al-Kadhimiya Prison in Baghdad. Among the executed men were an Egyptian
and a Tunisian national, Yosri Trigui, who was arrested in 2006 by US
forces for his alleged involvement in terrorism-related acts. He was
sentenced to death by the Central Criminal Court of Iraq (CCCI) for his
alleged involvement in a bomb attack in Samarra the same year, in a
trial that did not appear to meet international standards. The
intervention of Tunisian Ennahda leader Rached Ghannouchi had initially
led to a short postponement of the execution.

Trial
proceedings before the CCCI were very brief, often lasting only a few
minutes before verdicts are handed down. Defendants in criminal cases
often complained that "confessions" are extracted under torture and
other ill-treatment during pre-trial interrogation. They were often
held incommunicado in police stations or in detention without access to
their legal representatives or relatives, not brought before an
investigative judge within a reasonable time and not told of the reason
for their arrest. The "confessions" extracted from them are often
accepted by the courts without taking any or adequate steps to
investigate defendants' allegations of torture. The "confessions" are
also frequently broadcast on the Iraqi government-controlled satellite
TV Al Iraqiya, which undermines the presumption of innocence.

Well
look at the Peter Gallaghers emerging from their comas. Yes, while you
were sleeping, Reid Smith and Glovindria Burgess, we were noting the
assault on Iraqi youths. And we'd be thrilled that you showed up, even
all this time later, if you didn't show up and show off your
ignorance. Glovindria Burgess (Policy Mic) wants to offer a catty,
"Emo is understood in the West . . ." You not only don't understand
Emo music (in the US), you don't understand rock music so find
something else to write about. It should be a crime for you to
explicitly flaunt your ignorance. Reid Smith (American Spectator) wants
to focus on what's going on in Iraq with the Emo culture there. So he
repeats a bunch of tired lies and can't even get the lies correct.
What's going on in Iraq is not limited to Iraq. It took place in
Mexico (which kind of refutes all the points Smith and Burgess believe
they're making) and it took place in Egypt, it's part of a culture of
fear and it goes beyond sexuality concerns to sexual identity concerns
for those who are afraid (think US reaction to the hippies --
especially to males with 'long hair' back then). The fear-based
violence will continue as long as idiots like Smith and Burgess are
allowed to prattle on about things they know nothing about. Scott Lang
did an amazing job in 2009 covering the targeting of Iraq's LGBT
community and, no surprise, he wrote (back in March, for the Guardian) one of the most comprehensive and informative pieces on this latest round of targeting Iraqi youth

A
new killing campaign is convulsing Iraq. The express targets are
"emos", short for "emotional": a western-derived identity, teenagers
adopting a pose of vulnerability, along with tight clothes and skewed
hairdos and body piercing. Starting last year, mosques and the media
both began raising the alarm about youthful immorality, calling the
emos deviants and devil worshippers. In early February, somebody began
killing people. The net was wide, definitions inexact. Men who seemed
effeminate, girls with tattoos or peculiar jewellery, boys with long
hair, could all be swept up. The killers like to smash their victims'
heads with concrete blocks.There is no way to tell how many have
died: estimates range from a few dozen to more than 100. Nor is it
clear who is responsible. Many of the killings happened in east
Baghdad, stronghold of Shia militias such as Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi
army and Asaib Ahl al-Haq (the League of the Righteous). Neither,
though, has claimed responsibility. Iraq's brutal interior ministry
issued two statements in February. The first announced official approval to "eliminate" the "satanists". The second,
on 29 February, proclaimed a "campaign" to start with a crackdown on
stores selling emo fashion. The loaded language suggests, at a minimum,
that the ministry incited violence. It's highly possible that some
police, in a force riddled with militia members, participated in the
murders.It's logical to compare this to the militia campaign against homosexual conduct in 2009, which I documented for Human Rights Watch.
Hundreds of men lost their lives then. Gay-identified men have been
caught up in these killings as well, and Baghdad's LGBT community is
rife with fear. Yet there are differences. The current killings target
women as well as men, and children are the preferred victims. It's not
quite true to say, as some press reports have suggested, that "emo" is
just a synonym for "gay" in Iraq. Rather, immorality, western
influence, decadence and blasphemy have come together in a loosely
defined, poorly aligned complex of associations: and emo fashion and
"sexual perversion" are part of the mix.

Again,
if you're trying to find a correlation for what's taking place with
regards to Emo in other countries, especially in Arab countries, your
template is the hippies. There were some who saw them as gay and
lesbian (and there were some who were gay and lesbian, just as there
are some Emo who are) but at the root of the sexual panic that created
in so many reactionaries was the issue of sexual identity (and identity
period) as the hippies exercised and explored freedoms that frightened
others who were conditioned not to question or explore. That those
conditioned to rigid thinking would recoil explorers and adventurers
isn't surprising. And that's not, "Oh, look at the Arab world!" Not
only did a signficant number react that way to the hippies in the
sixties (and a smaller number continue to despise and attack them
today) but there was an organized response to that attempt at freedom.
As Noam Chomsky (Information Clearing House) points out this week while documenting the attack on public education in the US:

Forty years ago there was deep concern that the population was breaking free of apathy and obedience.At
the liberal internationalist extreme, the Trilateral Commission -- the
nongovernmental policy group from which the Carter Administration was
largely drawn -- issued stern warnings in 1975 that there is too much
democracy, in part due to the failures of the institutions responsible
for "the indoctrination of the young." On the right, an important 1971
memorandum by Lewis Powell, directed to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce,
the main business lobby, wailed that radicals were taking over
everything -- universities, media, government, etc. -- and called on
the business community to use its economic power to reverse the attack
on our prized way of life -- which he knew well. As a lobbyist for the
tobacco industry, he was quite familiar with the workings of the nanny
state for the rich that he called "the free market."Since then,
many measures have been taken to restore discipline. One is the crusade
for privatization -- placing control in reliable hands.

Back
to Iraq, the fear is why "satanism" isn't the big charge (sorry, Reid
Smith) but "vampirism" is. "Vampires" are even scarier. And the fear
is why the most popular report on Alsumaria's website remains, all
this time later, the February 3rd report annoucning the presence of "vampires in the holy city of Baghdad"
-- vampires who, the report informs you, absorb blood from one another
(from each other's wrists -- and, they argue, that is why the Emo kids
cover their wrists!). It's panic, pure and simple. And -- again refer
to Noam above -- it's not because Iraq is 'backward' (or anymore
backward than the US is) but because a lot of changes have taken place
in Iraq and a lot of people are frightened. That doesn't justify the
attacks on Iraqi youths who are or are suspected of being Emo or LGBT
or both -- nothing justifies those attacks -- but it does go to why
they take place. It has very little to do with those being attacked,
it's a fear inside of the person doing the attacking. All the Emo
and/or LGBT kids are doing is trying to find themselves and their place
in the world -- something universal about young people everywhere
around the world.

And on the topic of Iraqi youth, Karl Kahler (San Jose Mercury News) reports that Iraqi drama students from the American University of Iraq -- Sulaimaniyah have raised "$30,000 to fly to the U.S. this summer to perform at the famed Oregon Shakespeare Festival."
Ahmed al-Nuaimi states, "I really feel like a child on Christmas
morning who is running down the stairs to find his gift, but it is the
gift of a lifetime from the most generous, lovely and kind people I
will ever know." John Darling (Oregon's Mail Tribune) notes
that the deadline was looming and quotes their professor Peter
Friedrich explaining that since the good news emerged they "haven't
slept for two days and are up all night, talking and talking about
what's going to happen in America." They'll appear at the festival from
July 3rd through 8th (off on the Fourth) and Claudia Alick is quoted
stating, "We're going to get them to as many Shakespeare plays as
possible. We're so excited about this project and the festival is
being incredibly generous and providing free arts through the Green
Show." She is the associate producer of the Green Show and that part
of the festival (June 5th through October 14th) is not only open to the
public, it's free of charge. The festival in Ashland, Oregon began in
July of 1935 with the support of the city of Ashland and FDR's Works
Progress Administration and it has been held yearly with the exception
of the WWII years.

There are few excuses for those critics who are singing the praises of James Cameron’s Titanic. It is a bad piece of work—poorly scripted, poorly acted, poorly directed. If it weren’t for the hundreds of millions of dollars involved in its production and distribution, and the accompanying media hoopla, one could safely ignore the film.

I took my grandmother to see this film, the last one she saw (she died shortly after) and I took two nephews. They all wanted to see it so we went (I believe on Christmas Day if that's when it opened -- we saw the noon showing on opening day).

The place was packed and all that body heat made it to warm in there. I dozed off for ten minutes (after Leo sketches Kate Winslet). Both nephews slept soundly through it (and they wanted to see it). My grandmother made it through the whole thing.

Kathy Bates has a small role in Titanic as Molly Brown (who was the main character in the Debbie Reynolds film The Unsinkable Molly Brown).

My own thoughts were (a) too long, (b) way too long and (c) the only truly marketable thing about the film was that damn Celine Dion song and you didn't even get to hear the whole thing -- it plays at the end during the credits but I'm not remembering it playing all the way through. I could be wrong on that because I've only seen the film that once.

Unlike a lot of people seeing Cameron's film when it opened, I had already seen Titanic. That probably was why I judged it so poorly.

Are you confused?

I saw the film Titanic when I was a child -- the 1953 film starring Barbara Stanwyck, Robert Wagner, Thelma Ritter and others. And it was scary to me as a child. I hid under the couch while it was on TV and had nightmares -- screaming nightmares -- that night. But I saw it again when I was about 18 (maybe 20) and those amazing special effects now looked hokey (technology had moved on) and the piece just seemed hollow.

Cameron's film relied a lot on special effects and I felt the rest of it was hollow.

Unlike WSWS, I do think Cameron is a great director. I wouldn't have given him the Oscar for that film. I could see him getting it for The Abyss, Terminator 2 and Aliens with no problem. I could even give it to him for Avatar or True Lies (on the latter film, the real special effect is Jamie Lee Curtis' amazing performance!). But Titanic left me cold. I tried to watch it a few months after I saw it at the theaters.

I was having an affair with a guy named Griffin and we would meet up at a hotel (he wasn't married but he was engaged). And one day we had ice cream and nothing else -- we were staying the whole week and were probably at the mid-way point -- because we'd sent everything out to be cleaned (clothes). We hadn't packed for a long stay so we decided we'd get them to get ice cream for us and send off our clothes in the morning and get them back that night. So we're sexing up our hotel room and ready for ice cream.

And Griffin turns on the TV and looks for some porn (porn has never turned me on, guys might want to ask if they're trying to turn a woman on because a lot of us aren't into porn) and doesn't find anything that he thinks 'we'll' enjoy so he goes to movies and says, "Oh, this is romantic." And I'm in the kitchen (we were at a Marriot, I think Residence Inn, and it was a studio with an upstairs and downstairs and a fully equipped kitchen) scooping ice cream into bowls for us. I say, "Oh good."

I'm carrying the ice cream to the bed now, I look over and Leo's playing poor working class boy desperate to win his way onto the Titanic. I said, "I think I'd rather watch porn with water sports than suffer through Titanic again."

(Should disclose: I know James Cameron via C.I. Cameron's a very good friend of C.I.'s. He's also a very funny guy and I wish he'd be more unscripted in interviews because he really does have a great sense of humor.)

Sara
Flounders: In fighting today's wars, it's more important step is
building a movement that acknowledges the relationship between the war
at home and the war abroad. It's a big challenge. How dare any US
official lecture any, any other country on prisoners, human rights or
on democracy. What hypocrisy. This -- this country has the largest
prison population in the world and that's not counting the secret
prisons, the secret renditions, the secret kidnappings, the drones,
it's not counting immigration detention. We need to consciously step
back from ever being an echo of the State Dept and their arrogant
charges and target other countries. US wars, they rely on an arrogance
of empire. Can they once again get a population to believe that
humanitarian war is possible? That they're bringing democracy,
advancement for women, an end to sectarian violence. We need an
anti-war movement that is really, consciously against all US wars.
That's simple. And against all the forms that US wars take today.
Bombs and occupations, yes. But sanctions, sabotage, drones, media
onslaughts, demonetization of leaders, racist stereotypings of whole
peoples. We represent here many different political currents and
traditions here in this room. And we can't and won't agree on many
issues. So how do we proceed how do we stay united and keep our focus?
If we focus on US imperialism, on its crimes, whatever our views on
many social issues, we will be together because we need an antiwar
movement that opposes US war. Consider the US-NATO war against Libya.
Eleven countries simultaneously dropping bombs on a country with no
means of defense all claiming they were on a humanitarian mission while
they target the electric grid, the water supply, civilian
communications. Now let's talk about WikiLeaks' latest Stratfor
revelation -- and, by the way, Free Bradley Manning -- the latest
WikiLeaks' document in the Stratfor files, they describe in some detail
the White House meeting that reviews British and French and US Special
Forces, units on the ground in Syria, planting bombs, running guns,
training and seeking total destabilization. Now that's the truth.
UNAC today stands for self-determination and demands that all US
troops, drones and sabotage teams out. Unconditional US withdrawal.
That's a big contribution, a big step. We can't be making demands on
any country at the very time it's under attack, at the time that the
bombs are falling, at the time the sanctions are strangling, Today, in
the last weeks, we see the most cynical and arrogant approach. Kony.
Kony 2012. Right? Invisible children? And what is it? Young people
cheering AFRICOM, US troops in Africa? That's the way they sell US
wars today. There's a rapidly expanding US military presence in
Africa. It includes troops in Uganda, a military mission in Mali,
drone bombings in Somalia, political intervention in Sudan, all under
the umbrella of AFRICOM. It's blame the victim. It saturates the
media and it saturates the mass movement. We need to stand up to it.
And a just on a personal level and to give a comparison, there was a
time when if a woman was attacked, sexually assaulted, what was the
defense of the attacker, of the courts and of the police? It was to
ask, what was she wearing? Doing? Where was she walking? That she
invited or deserved this attack. And one gain of the women's movement
was to say: It's irrelevant. That is irrelevant. That's the way we
have to see US wars. That is the way. Let's talk about Syria and Libya
and Iraq and Iran and Venezuela and Bolivia and Sudan. US imperialism
wants to destroy each of these countries. Not because they've made any
compromises to survive -- and they have. But because they've
nationalized the source of wealth, because it's US domination,
corporate domination, that they want. This empire has problems they can
no longer solve. Capitalism can no longer bail itself out with war. The
capitalist crisis is global. It's unsolvable So our unity is more
important. The United National Anti-War Coalition, UNAC,
was founded on the principle of self-determination for all the
oppressed nations and people. What do we want to demand that they
abolish NATO, we want to talk about march on the RNC and the DNC.
Abolish NATO and end the wars abroad.

I was privileged to present the coordinating committee's draft of the Action Plan to UNAC's national conference
in Stamford, Connecticut, this past weekend. "This action plan does not
just target some U.S. wars," said the committee's statement. "It does
not target the currently unpopular wars. It does not shy away from
condemning wars that remain acceptable to half the population because
the real reasons for them are obscured in the rhetoric of humanitarian
intervention. It does not advocate that we avoid putting U.S. boots on
the ground by mounting embargoes that bring economic devastation on the
peoples of Iran. It does not condone war by other, more sanitized,
means. It does not cheer on wars that minimize U.S. combat deaths by
the use of robotic unmanned planes or the highly trained murder squads
of the Joint Special Operations Command. It does not see war by
mercenary as somehow less threatening to the peoples of the world and
the U.S. than war by economic draft. It does not give credit to
Washington for removing brigades from one country in order to deploy
them in the next."

The document
demands an end to "all wars, interventions, targeted assassinations and
occupations" and U.S. withdrawal from "NATO and all other
interventionist military alliances."

UNAC's reasoning is rooted in the principle that all the world's peoples have the inherent right to self-determination,to
pursue their own destinies -- the foundation of relations among
peoples, enshrined in international law but daily violated by the
United States.

That's
34 people. I need a head count so I'm asking everyone to RSVP. It's a
week away and only 10 have. That's not a really good sign. 12 show up
(11 invited, one not invited). Tim Arango insists he Tweeted his RSVP
and since I'm not on Twitter, I missed it. 5 show up just to be kind
(Damien Cave, Liz Sly, Borzou Daragahi, Ed O'Keefe and Alissa J.
Rubin). 5 show up to tell off the crazy bitch that's slammed everyone
online for so many years (Jane Arraf, Arwa Damon, Stephen Farrell, Sam
Dagher, Jomana Karadsheh and party crasher David E. Sanger). As we sit
down to eat, there is silence that only momentarily vanished during
dinner, most people talk to one another, I make some idiotic toast that
further alienates everyone present.

The next
morning, not even I am stupid enough to delude myself into thinking my
dinner party was a success. If someone says to me, "Well people showed
up," even I'm not stupid enough to assume they showed up due to some
love for me. They showed up for various reasons including manners and
to tell me off. I am not idiotic enough to assume that my decision to
host a party means my hosting a party makes it a success. Good or bad
(and mine was bad), my just hosting a party I invited people too does
not make it a success.

The Arab League Summit
was not a success for Iraq. Less than half of the heads of countries
who are members of the Arab League attended. With the exception of
Kuwait, no leader attended because of Nouri. Those other heads of state
that attended did so for a variety of reasons but Iraq and Nouri
weren't among them.

Today, Liz Sly (Washington Post) offers
that "the goodwill generated between Iraq and its Arab neighbors by an
extravagant summit in Baghdad last week began unraveling at speed." No
goodwill was generated. Iraqi President Jalal Talabani was lavishly
praised in public remarks by those attending. And some of that praise
was probably for him (he was a gregarious host from all account) but
some of the heavy praise was just to make a point -- via contrast
-- about Nouri al-Maliki (prime minister and thug of Iraq) who got far
less public praise from those attending. When you grasp that most were
not there for Nouri and not impressed by Nouri, you can grasp that he's
shot himself in the foot every day since as he's verbally attacked
Qatar and Saudi Arabia. He has no real ties to the Arab neighbors. If
Kuwait didn't want the borders redrawn, they probably wouldn't be as
chummy with him as they are.

Sameer N. Yacoub (AP) broke the news this morning that the national conference had been called off according to Speaker of Parliament Osama al-Nujaifi. Yamei Wang (Xinhua) adds
that the the Speaker "attributed the postponement to the mounting
differences among political blocs during a meeting by the prepatory
committee held on Tuesday." The national conference is something that
Jalal Talabani and Osama al-Nujaifi have been calling for since
December 21st in order to address the ongoing political crisis.

Political
Stalemate I (when Nouri wouldn't honor the results of the March 7, 2010
elections) only ended in November 2010 because all parties -- including
Nouri -- agreed to the US-brokered Erbil Agreement. Once he was made
prime minister -- the main gift to Nouri in the Erbil Agreement -- he
tossed it aside, that's December 2010 and the start of Political
Stalemate II which has been ongoing ever since. Over the summer, the
Kurds began calling for a return to the Erbil Agreement. They were then
joined by Iraqiya (who came in first in the March 7, 2010 elections)
and Moqtada al-Sadr, among others. The Erbil Agreement found Nouri
making various concessions if the others would allow him to remain
prime minister. But he got to be prime minister and trashed the
agreement, refusing to honor what he agreed to, the very things that
made the other political blocs sign off on the agreement.

Maliki
had agreed to hold the reconciliation conference as a last-minute
concession to the Sunnis and Kurds ahead of the Baghdad summit, which
the government hoped would showcase Iraq as stable, safe and assuming its rightful place in the firmament of Arab nations after the withdrawal of U.S. troops late last year.

But
relations with Arab states have since been deteriorating fast, along
with any hopes that Iraq will soon be able to resolve its own internal
problems. On Sunday, Maliki issued a forceful defense of Syrian
President Bashar al-Assad, saying his ouster would destabilize the
region. On the same day, at a U.S.-backed gathering of "Friends of
Syria" in Istanbul, Saudi Arabia endorsed a plan to fund and equip
Syrian rebels.

Did Nouri want the meet up to take place? Rami Ruhayem (BBC News) argues that today "his opponents said they would not attend, and his allies said there was no point."

This morning, before the meet-up got the axe, Dar Addustour reported
on Nouri's paranoia and how he was girding himself for a possible
takeover attempt. He doesn't name Barzani but, as Dar Addustour points
out, that is who he's referring to when he frets that he may be
replaced. Nouri fears his puppet masters in the US may be about to dump
him and that's why Barzani is in DC. (Why would the White House dump
him? Nouri thinks they might move towards someone more willing to favor
an attack on Syria.) He also fears Tareq al-Hashemi's current
diplomatic tour of other countries might have something to do with Arab
leaders of other countries gearing up for a coup. Unnamed confidants of
Nouri state that he is preparing himself for those possibilities and
also for a military coup staged by Iraqi security forces loyal to DC.
(Last month, State of Law repeatedly floated that there were several
Iraqi military officers -- high ranking -- who were spying for the
United States.)

Does that really sound like he wanted the meet-up?

Yamei Wang (Xinhua) reports,
"Nujaifi attributed the postponement to the mounting differences among
political blocs during a meeting by the prepatory committee held on
Tuesday." Wang's reporting that the agenda was agreed to but some
other issues came up on Tuesday.

Nouri
al-Maliki is not a genius, he's barely literate. But when throwing out
possibilities, it's worth remembering that Nouri stalls and stalls and
stalls again. He stalled on the national conference to begin with. As
Liz Sly noted he postponed it until after the Arab League Summit. Most
of the other players -- not just Iraqiya -- were saying that it needed
to be held in February, then that it needed to take place before the
summit.

The reason for the national conference
is what? The Erbil Agreement. He's stalled on implementing that for
over a year. When the major protests hit Iraq on February 25, 2011 and
the people were demanding basic services, jobs and end to corruption
and to the 'disappearing' of people in Iraq's legal system, what did
Nouri do?

He said, "Give me 100 days and I'll
address it." He took 100 days, he never addressed it. Even
now, approximately 400 days after he asked for 100 days, he's never
addressed the issues that Iraqis raised. He stalls and stalls. He
hopes people forget or that he can exhaust them. That's what he did in
his first term as prime minister.

Others may
have called off the meet-up (they may not). But if something happened
on Tuesday night to bring about this decision, don't put it past Nouri
to have instigated that. It his pattern.

The
political crisis did not start half-way into December when Nouri
started demanding Deputy Prime Minister Saleh al-Mutlaq be stripped of
his post and then that Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi be arrested.
That is, however, when certain media outlets began to take the ongoing
political crisis seriously. (Please note, that week that started with
Nouri ordering al-Hashemi arrested, it was never news to American
broadcast network news because the only one that reported on it that week was The NewsHour on PBS -- CBS Evening News, ABC World News Tonight and NBC Nightly News all ignored the prime minister ordering the arrest of the vice president.)

In
a press conference Maliki said that he had a criminal file on Hashimi
that he had been sitting on for three years, and was now ready to
prosecute him. For the objective observer, the timing of this
announcement was telling. [. . .] Confessions of Hashimi's security
personnel were aired on state television and an arrest warrent for
Hashim himself was issued and also made public on state TV -- All this
publicity on Maliki's side in order to burn the bridges and make any
political deal impossible in this country where government is glued
together with political deals.

A
day after al-Hashemi went to the KRG, Nouri issued the arrest warrant.
Tareq al-Hashemi has remained in the KRG as a guest of Iraqi President
Jalal Talabani and KRG President Massoud Barzani. Until Sunday
when he traveled to Qatar. Despite Nouri's bluster, Qatar refused his
request to extradite al-Hashemi (who stated it was a visit and that
he'd return to the KRG when he finished his diplomatic tour. Habib Toumi (Gulf News) explains, "Al Hashemi was received by the Qatari Emir Shaikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani received Al Hashemi at his court." Alsumaria notes
that when asked at a press conference today, Osama al-Nujaifi declared
that he understood al-Hashemi to be making an official trip and that,
as he understood it, al-Hashemi would be returning to the KRG.

Mohammed Jamjoon (CNN) reports
that al-Hashemi has now traveled onto Sadui Arabia. Jamjoon quotes
Usama al-Nugali, spokesperson for Saudi Arabia's Foreign Ministry,
stating, "He came to Saudi Arabia and met with Prince Saudi Al-Faisal,
the foreign minister. He is, after all, the vice president of Iraq."

Turning to the topic of violence, AFP reports that a Baquba sticky bombing claimed 1 life today. AGI notes 5 people have been killed in a Dhuluiya car bombing with at least ten more injured. Fang Yang (Xinhua) reports,
"The booby-trapped car went off when a team of police explosive experts
were defusing a roadside bomb nearby in the town of al-Duluiyah, some
90 km north of Baghdad, the source from Salahudin's operations command
said on condition of anonymity." AFP offers,
"The police officer said that the explosion took place at about 8:30 am
(5:30 GMT) when Dhuluiyah police chief Colonel Qandil Khalil's convoy
was passing by." And they also note,
"It was the second attack against Colonel Khalil's convoy this year,
after a previous car bombing in January that he also survived."
Dhuluiya is in Salahuddin Province. Yesterday journalist Kamiran Salahudin was killed in the province by a sticky bombing. Also yesterday, Al Sabaah reports,
the Turkish military shelled Dohuk and Erbil in their continued pursuit
of the PKK. The paper notes that the shelling was continuous and
lasted for approximately 30 hours.

According to a translation from the Centre for Law and Democracy, Articles 3, 4, and 5 of Iraq's Informatics Crimes Law would impose a mandatory life sentence for anyone using a computer or the Internet to do any of the following:

"compromise" the "unity" of the state;subscribe,
participate, negotiate, promote, contract or deal with an enemy … in
order to destabilize security and public order or expose the country to
danger;damage, cause defects, or hinder
[systems or networks] belonging to security military, or intelligence
authorities with a deliberate intention to harm [state security].promote "ideas which are disruptive to public order";"implement terrorist operations under fake names or to facilitate communication with members or leaders of terrorist groups";"promote
terrorist activites and ideologies or to publish information regarding
the manufacturing, preparation and implementation of flammable or
explosive devices, or any tools or materials used in the planning or
execution of terrorist acts";facilitate or promote human trafficking "in any form";engage in "trafficking, promoting or facilitating the abuse of drugs".

The
Act also includes provisions to punish network users who "create chaos
in order to weaken the trust of the electronic system of the state,"
"provoke or promote armed disobedience," "disturb public order or harm
the reputation of the country," or "intrude, annoy or call computer and
information network users without authorization or hinders their use,"
the Electronic Freedom Foundation
reports. Copyright infringement and hacking would also land users in
big trouble under the Act, which proposes a 2- to 3-year prison term
for either offense.

Today Alice Fordham (Washington Post) reports
on attempts to curb speech in Iraq where bills are being considered
that could imprison people who criticize the government or make new
requirements/hurdles for demonstrating. She speaks with Iraqi blogger
Hayder Hamzoz:

The law also
contains a sentence of life imprisonment for using computers or social
networks to compromise "the independence of the state or its unity,
integrity, safety."Hamzoz,
who does not use his real name out of concern for his safety, said he
believes the legislationis intended to allow the government of Prime
Minister Nouri al-Maliki to control social media. The government
essentially did just that more than a year ago, when it swiftly smothered an uprising inspired by the Arab Spring revolts sweeping the region. "It's to attack the activists," he said.

Moving over to the United States, Senator Patty Murray is the Chair of Senate Veterans Affairs Committee. Her office notes:

(Washington,
D.C.) – Tomorrow, Thursday, April 5th, U.S. Senator Patty Murray will
hold a roundtable discussion with VA officials and local veterans in
Spokane to discuss a range of topics including veterans homelessness,
issues specific to female veterans, mental health, basic service
problems in rural Washington, and transition. Following the roundtable,
Senator Murray and Dr. Petzel, Under Secretary for Health in the
Department of Veterans Affairs, will tour the Spokane Veterans
Homelessness Outreach Center. Senator Murray will discuss her efforts
to improve veterans care and benefits nationwide, and will use the
stories and suggestions she hears on Thursday to fight for local
veterans in Washington, D.C.

WHO: U.S. Senator Patty Murray

Dr. Petzel, Under Secretary for Health in the Department of Veterans Affairs

Dr. Bastian, Chief of Behavioral Health at the SVAMC

Julie Liss, Women's Veterans Coordinator at the SVAMC

John Davis, Program Coordinator, Healthcare for Homeless Veterans

Monica Giles, Program Coordinator at the SVAMC

Local veterans

WHAT: Roundtable with local veterans and service providers about the difficulties they face in regards to:

homelessness, women veteran's issues, mental health, and transition.

WHEN: TOMORROW: THURSDAY, April 5, 2012

Roundtable begins at 12:00 PM PT, tour will take place immediately following roundtable

A new study of PTSD by UCLA's Semel Institute (and published in the Journal of Affective Disorders) is garnering attention. Stephanie O'Neill (KPCC -- link is text and audio) reports,
"The new study suggests that a person is more likely to suffer from
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or if they carry two particular gene
variations that interfere with the body's ability to produce Serotonin.
That's the brain chemical that regulates, mood, sleep and alertness." Medical News Today quotes
the study's lead author, Dr. Armen Goenjian, stating, "People can
develop post-traumatic stress disorder after surviving a
life-threatening ordeal like war, rape or a natural disaster ... If
confirmed, our findings could eventually lead to new ways to screen
people at risk for PTSD and target specific medicines for preventing
and treating the disorder." Science Daily notes,
"PTSD can arise following child abuse, terrorist attacks, sexual or
physical assault, major accidents, natural disasters or exposure to war
or combat. Symptoms include flashbacks, feeling emotionally numb or
hyper-alert to danger, and avoiding situations that remind one of the
original trauma." The study examined 200 survivors of the December 7, 1988 Armenian earthquake which claimed at least 45,000 lives.

On the topic of PTSD, Randy Griffith (Tribune-Democrat) explains,
"There are three general characteristics of the disorder, Zitnay said.
They are re-experiencing the trauma, avoidance and hyper-arousal. Those
with PTSD re-experience the event through nightmares, flashbacks and
increased anxiety when reminded of the event. Avoidance is
characterized by seclusion, amnesia of the incident and taking pains to
stay away from locations, people or objects associated with the
trauma." Shuka Kalantari (KALW) reports on PTSD by speaking to Iraqi refugee Jasmine who studies engineering in California.

Shuka
Kalantari: Jasmine remembers one of those flashbacks. She was at a
women's studies class at her college in San Jose. They were watching a
documentary about a war in Chile. After the film, the teacher asked
students to try and imagine how their life would be if they lived in
war.

Jasmine: So she
tried like to make the student feel like the feelings of these people.
So she stated [. . .] to the class, "You imagine that you lost your
husband." As she came to me, "You imagine that they tried to kidnap
you."

Shuka Kalantari: Jasmine didn't have to imagine.

Jasmine:
I feel like I'm out of air. I left the class and I remained outside --
for over like 20 hours just like crying in a way.

Shuka
Kalantari: For the next her mind was flooded with bad memories. She
said that even seemingly unrelated things would trigger her symptoms.

Jasmine:
Sometimes like part of songs would make me like really like sad and
depression if something happened to me. I feel like I'm out of the war
for a couple of days.

Shuka Kalantari speaks to the
Center for Survivors of Torture's Dr. James Livingston who explains
PTSD is fairly common among those forced to flee their homes. Jasmine's
father was shot dead in Baghdad and she left the country when it
appeared she was being targeted for kidnapping.

Chaplain:
Steve Dudnas: I am Lt Commander Steve Dundas. I've been in the military
30 years, the Navy since 1999. When we got to Iraq our mission was to
support US Marine Corps and Army advisers across the entire Al Anbar
Province. These teams were out by themselves and they would very seldom
if ever see a chaplain because of their isolation. I would go out and
provide counseling, religious services. The hardest parts of the
deployment? One, I've had a lot of experience as a trauma department
chaplain and seen a lot of death. But when I got there and actually saw
our wounded Marines and soldiers, prayed with them, anointed them, that
was one of the really hard things -- was to see what war does to these
warriors. I had studied a lot about PTSD and dealt with Marines who had
it. I thought I was pretty much untouchable to it because I thought I'd
seen everything. But I was really surprised by some of the things I saw
and the impact that they had. The sites, the smells especially. The
exhaustion. The travel. We went through some of the most dangerous
areas of Iraq. Occasionally got shot at. And there was always an
understanding that al Qaeda had chaplains at the top of their target
list. When I came back to the States, I just felt so disconnected from
people, church. I didn't even know if God still existed. And that was
one of the most painful parts of my life. Prayer became really hard.
Just going -- Doing life became really hard. I was depressed, angry, on
edge all of the time. Finally, our medical officer did an assessment
and was convinced that I was really starting to suffer PTSD and got me
connected with the Deployment Health Clinic at Portsmouth Naval Medical
Center and I started seeing a therapist there trying to figure out how
to deal with my experiences. For me, writing is something that allows
me to work through things and if I didn't write them out [they] would
gnaw at me. And some of that deals with my own struggles with PTSD and
faith, some of it deals with how I see the world now, and part of it
are those things that are part of me: my dad, growing up, baseball.
About the only place I can be in a crowd of people and still feel
really safe is at a baseball game. And part of it is just the way the
diamond's laid out and just the peacefulness of it. My role as a
chaplain is to provide the spiritual support as they make this journey
and as they begin to open up about what they've gone through. But many
times, it requires more than just the chaplain. And so, I'll say, I
know it's scary but I think that you need to seek the help of a mental
health professional because it's a way to get better. And I tell them
my experiences which are good experiences with both the therapists I've
had. That they understood and they didn't push me to some track that I
was unable to go to. I realize that you can't go back, you can't go
back to what you were, you have to adapt to what you are. Do you want
to be healthy? Yes. Do you want to be well adjusted? Yes. Does that
mean you're going to be the same person you were before you went to
war? No. Nobody is. But that's okay if we open ourselves up to get
help. It's not something that we're going to be better overnight. What
it will be though is a step on the way to healing, a step on the way to
integrating those experiences with our daily life now. I don't think it
is weakness to seek help. In fact, I think it's a sign of strength. I
think it's a sign that you want to move forward. And what I hope is
that when I spend time with people, when I share with people, when I
listen to people, that I can help them to begin that process if they
haven't already started. And to encourage them if they're already
getting some therapy. Provide that extra bit of support, that extra bit
of connection so that they don't feel that they're alone.